Donald Roberts, a professor emeritus in the School of Art, died March 16.
Donald Roberts, a professor emeritus of art who taught at Ohio University for nearly 40 years, died on March 16 at his home in Athens, according to a university news release.
Roberts, who was also a member of the Kennedy Museum of Art’s advisory board, was a nationally recognized lithographer, painter and sculptor. He died at 91 and his cause of death wasn’t immediately available as of press time.
As well as teaching at OU, Roberts contributed to the Kennedy Museum of Art. He worked with the museum’s Contemporary Print Collection, and curated an exhibit of the work in fall of 2014.
“He was involved early on in the planning stages of the Kennedy,” said Edward Pauley, director of the Kennedy Museum of Art and close friend of Roberts. “He served on the advisory board at the Kennedy. We have also featured an exhibit of his own work and … he helped to develop our contemporary print collection.”
“A Space in Time: Works by Donald Roberts,” was also recently showcased at the Kennedy. The exhibit included two bodies of work produced by Roberts to showcase “experimental and expressive limits,” according to the Kennedy Museum of Art website.
“Jim Dine: Sculpture and Large Prints,” an exhibit at the Kennedy Museum of Art in 2011, was donated in honor of Roberts. Dine studied under Roberts while at OU.
Harvey Breverman, an OU alumnus who has had more than 80 solo-art exhibitions worldwide, was influenced by Roberts. Roberts encouraged Breverman to pursue art and teaching while also helping him to find a voice as an artist.
For more than 50 years, Roberts lived on the Vinalhaven Islands, Maine, during the summer and created art in his studio. He contributed artwork to the island and was a well-known member of the community, although he could not return there after health concerns in his last few years of life, according to an obituary published on the Jager & Sons Funeral Home website.
“Donald had the most remarkable memory of anybody I had ever known,” Pauley said. “I think a lot of people would say the same thing. He was a great storyteller. He had a passion for art, of course. … I would say the Kennedy museum of art was one of his major focuses.”
Roberts graduated from the Vesper George School of Art in 1948 and continued to teach there until 1950. After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island, Roberts pursued a Master of Fine Arts from OU.
He is survived by a sister, Muriel Massey of Virginia and cousin Nancy D. Johnson of New Hampshire.
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